Chapter 13 - The Medical Side
The room exploded into movement.
Detective Price ordered Richard and Voss separated.
Richard’s attorneys demanded the recording be authenticated.
Gabriel ordered the hospital’s legal department to preserve every server.
Marcus stood motionless.
Khloe felt another contraction.
Then another.
She gripped the side of the bed.
Dr. Shaw noticed immediately.
“Khloe?”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
The monitor changed.
Marcus looked toward the screen.
“What’s happening?”
Dr. Shaw pressed the call button.
“The contractions are three minutes apart.”
Fear replaced everything else.
Khloe forgot Richard.
Isabella.
The affair.
The trust.
All she could think about was her son.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“He’s too early.”
Dr. Shaw took her hand.
“Listen to me.”
“His heart rate is still good.”
“We’re moving you to maternal care now.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Let me come.”
Khloe looked at him.
For one terrible second, six years of marriage stood between them.
The mornings he made coffee.
The nights he rubbed her feet when pregnancy made them ache.
The laughter.
The lies.
The woman in the hotel.
The paternity test.
The threats he hid.
She wanted the man she had believed he was.
That man no longer existed.
Still, she was terrified.
“Walk beside the bed.”
Marcus nodded.
Nothing more.
As they moved through the corridor, security officers escorted Richard in the opposite direction.
Father and son looked at each other.
Richard spoke first.
“Marcus.”
Marcus stopped.
“Don’t.”
“You don’t understand what was at stake.”
Marcus stared at him.
“My son was at stake.”
“The company employs twenty thousand people.”
“My son.”
Richard lowered his voice.
“Khloe will take control and dismantle everything our family built.”
Khloe heard him.
She lifted her head from the pillow.
“No, Richard.”
Everyone turned.
Khloe’s voice was weak but steady.
“I’m going to save what your family almost destroyed.”
Richard’s face tightened.
The elevator doors closed between them.
Inside the maternal unit, Dr. Shaw began treatment immediately.
Medication.
Fluids.
Monitoring.
Minutes stretched.
Then an hour.
Finally, the contractions slowed.
Khloe cried silently from relief.
Marcus stood near the door.
He looked as though he had aged ten years overnight.
Dr. Shaw smiled faintly.
“Your baby wants to stay where he is.”
Khloe pressed both hands over her stomach.
“Thank God.”
Marcus whispered the same words.
Then Detective Price appeared at the glass door.
He did not look relieved.
Khloe knew there was more.
“What now?”
Price entered.
“We authenticated Isabella’s recording.”
Gabriel stood beside him.
“But there’s a section you haven’t heard.”
Khloe looked at Marcus.
Price continued.
“It suggests Richard wasn’t the person who decided tonight would be the night of the attack.”
“Then who did?”
Price looked toward Marcus.
May you like
“Someone Isabella trusted even more.”
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